Gorowa cautious of tanzania threat

The Warriors start their search for a third appearance at the Orange Africa Cup of Nations finals this Sunday when they engage Tanzania in the first round, first leg match at the National Stadium in Dar es Salaam.

Coach Ian Gorowa who called up 22 players for the match has seen the withdrawal of Ajax Cape Town striker Simba Sithole, Kaizer Chiefs’ Kingston Nkhatha, Willard Katsande and Bantu Rovers’ Nqobizitha Masuku due to injuries.

That for Gorowa is not the major worry. The real threat says the Warriors boss is posed by opponents, Tanzania.

Said Gorowa; “Remember we played Tanzania before we went to the 2014 Chan finals and we drew 0-0. I saw they are a strong side. They played Malawi two weeks ago and drew 0-0 again and I watched that game in Dar es Salaam.”

“That makes them a good team and can be very dangerous playing in front of their home crowd. But for us, playing the first leg away is okay, we should go there and seek a good result and come back and finish off the job,” he added.

Gorowa said Zimbabwe’s past poor performance in the last two editions of Afcon qualifiers means they have to take the long route to Morocco.

“It is difficult to play in the first two rounds. We have been on a downward spiral and we are paying the price for that but this is one of the things we will try to rectify. We have got three phases to go through and hopefully we will be able to qualify,” the coach said.

The fact that Zifa managed to send him to Tanzania for a spying mission is a sign that things are turning for the better.

“It was good that I travelled to Tanzania. These are things we should do when the finances are available at Zifa,” Gorowa, who led the Warriors to place at the Chan in South Africa, added.

He has retained the bulk of the history-making Warriors from the Chan finals, who include goalkeepers George Chigova and Munyaradzi Diya, Eric Chipeta, Peter Moyo, Sundowns-bound Kuda Mahachi, Pascal Manhanga, Milton Ncube, Danny Phiri and Patson Jaure.

University of Pretoria goalkeeper Washington Arubi is also part of the squad that will be captained by Jaure.

The Warriors, if they sail past the Taifa Stars over the two legs will face either Mozambique or South sudan with the winner getting into final group phase which has 2012 champions Zambia, Cape Verde Islands and Niger.

From here, the two top teams will progress to Morocco.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) News